


Fading Memories

by poisonous_panda



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Altissia, Angst, Blind!Ignis, Comfort, F/M, Flashbacks, Fluff, Hammerhead - Freeform, HighSpecs, HighSpecs Week, Ignea, Lestallum, Nightmares, Romance, Starscourge, Ten Years of Darkness, World of Ruin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-05 23:19:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12199419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisonous_panda/pseuds/poisonous_panda
Summary: A Highspecs fic for the Day 5 prompt 'Nightmares' during Highspecs Week on Tumblr. Ignis continues to have nightmares of when he went blind in Altissia, but he struggles to reveal his vulnerabilities to Aranea





	Fading Memories

Flames.

Intense heat.

Bullets.

Clashing metallic sounds of Ravus' cutlass striking the MTs.

The deafening roar of the Hydrean.

Then a blinding flash and a searing pain slicing through his skull.

It's been the same nightmare for years, and Ignis always awakens by sitting bolt upright slicked in sweat; as if the flames had really been licking at his back while he clutched desperately to his daggers. Every time the memories grew fainter and fainter, yet the panic that roused him was just as strong as the first time.

The day he went blind.

He needn't even fumble his hand around for the body next to him because she was already sitting up by his side. Artificial, daemon-repelling light created by the Exineris power plant tried to filter its way through the crack in their cream curtains, but it didn't matter much what with Ignis' handicap. Aranea - and indeed the whole of Eos were used to the Darkness by now.

"The flames again?" she asks, softly but bluntly. Aranea never did total sympathy, and Ignis was glad of it. He didn't want to feel like a child.

"Yes. No matter how often I dream it, it never changes." he answers, hanging his head in... what? Embarrassment? Fear? Mourning? Probably a mixture of the three to be honest.

Aranea silently rubs her hand up and down her blind lover's bare back. In this Lestallum heat he only wore his underwear to bed - a simple grey pair tonight. She was only clad in a pair of black and red lacy panties herself. His blonde-brown hair was swept back over his head while her silver locks were tied in a high ponytail with a black ribbon to keep it off her skin. He needed reassurance, even if he wouldn't admit it. 

"You still haven't told me what happened that day..." she carefully begins, but Ignis doesn't even acknowledge she's spoken to him so she continues, "Can't do anything about it now. But you've done well to carry on like this. Don'tcha think talking about it might end the nightmares?" 

"No." Ignis cuts her off and lies back down, turning away from her. If the nightmares stopped, he may forget what happened completely. So many years have already passed. Who knows how many more will march on by before Noctis returns to the world? Ignis could not let those memories go, no matter how terrible they were.

Silently, the Dragoon shuffles closer to him in their Kingsize bed. They had to get a bigger than average one so Ignis was less likely to roll off of it if he moved around in his sleep. It's not like he could see when he opened his one partially undamaged eye in the morning anyway. Not that it mattered. There was no 'morning' anymore, so even though Ignis could sense light in the darkness, it would do him no use whilst Eos was engulfed in the Starscourge.

Usually they slept apart, or on tender nights they held hands, because Lestallum's heat made it impossible to cuddle for long periods of time. But she made an exception tonight, as she always does whenever Ignis has his nightmares. True, they've gotten less frequent, but he still had them.

Draping her arm over his toned waist, she feels him sigh. There are more scars marring his skin - mainly on his pecs and back - and Aranea had kissed every single one over the course of their relationship. Ignis wasn’t one to ask or seek reassurance, but she gave it nonetheless. He loved her for knowing his innermost desires without the need for words. Aranea’s heart used to break just at the sight of her lover’s injuries. She couldn't imagine going from being so independent and reliable to feeling utterly useless. Ignis WASN'T useless, he proved it again and again going on hunts with her in the Darkness. He even insisted on cooking her dinner every night. At first she was terrified he'd set the apartment on fire, but he never did. 

It never mattered what anybody said, no matter how highly they praised him after they realised they could never stop him hunting, Ignis STILL pushed himself. He never said, but Aranea knew he was trying to prove his usefullness and worthiness to himself rather than to those around him. She knew, because she would be the same in his situation. True, she didn't have her loyalties tied to the King taking a nap inside the Crystal, but she understood how deep Ignis and Noct's bond went - they'd known each other since they were children, just like she had known Biggs and Wedge.

When they had met two years after the Darkness fell, Ignis had actively sought her out. The Crownsguard Marshal - Cor Leonis - had done well to retrain him considering his disability. But Ignis craved more. She was flattered that he’d remembered her skill with a lance, and even more so when he’d described her as an ‘ally’. Whenever he called her that before The Fall - back when she’d sometimes bump int o the boys hunting daemons near Hammerhead - she’d momentarily lose her concentration. He had such a prim accent, and it drawled in all the right places to make her instantly want to trust him - going completely against her mercenary instincts. She’d never forgotten Ignis after their time in Steriff Grove looking for Mythril. She’d found him attractive right from the off, it wasn’t often she met good looking men who could be as dangerous as she was in battle. So when it came to say their farewell and Ignis took it upon himself to tell her to “take care” on her path in life, she was instantly secretly smitten. Nobody ever took on the soft tones with her that Ignis did. When she’d seen his injuries in Tenebrae her heart had dropped into her stomach before she even realised that the young kid Prompto was missing. But she couldn’t act all motherly and sympathetic; it was just no longer in her nature. And she knew Ignis was a man of pride, she didn’t want to wound him further by treating him softly. Ignis had respected her for that, and cherished every moment he spent with her because of it.

Ignis had sought her out to train him, to challenge him "like only the best Dragoon could". So train they did. Hard. And flirted just as strongly. 

Then one day he had anticipated her moves before she did, and in one swift side-stepping motion he'd had her on her ass.

"Ouch!" she'd cried out, "Looks like you're still the best Strategist around." she'd smiled at him, forgetting his blindness for a moment as he helped her by her hand to her feet. Rather than answer her, he released her hand and wrapped his arm around her waist before bringing her in for a kiss.

That was how it all started. And so now here they were in their own apartment in Lestallum. 

It took a while for him to open up about the continuous nightmare. Originally he had made a new one up every night. He didn't want her to think less of him, despite her already saying she never would. But now she knew what it was about even though she didn't necessarily know how it went, Aranea did her best to comfort Ignis.

"I'm no good to Noct like this." Ignis says as he furrows his brow and balls his fists into the bedsheets; Aranea felt his muscles tense under her arm. 

Raising herself on her elbow, she rolls Ignis onto his back so he's looking up at her. Well, at least so he was in that position. It helped keep things normal if they still acted like his eyes were a part of him rather than disregard them completely now that he was blind.

"You can still hunt with the best of us. I know you're not a man to feel sorry for yourself. You've done the best you can, and you've impressed us all." she tells him sternly, then softening her tone she says "You've... you've really impressed me."

At this Ignis smiled at her, and Aranea couldn't help but mirror it.

Leaning forward, she tenderly kisses the huge scar on the side of his face.

"The past is over. You've moved on, you've come so far. Your sleeping King would be proud." she tells him earnestly.

"Thank you, Aranea. You are all the Light I need in this Darkness" Ignis breathes, reaching his hand up to cup her face. Aranea loves how Ignis' accent caused him to put more emphasis on the 'Ar' part of her name. She'd never get tired of hearing him say it.

They stayed like that for several moments, Aranea propped up on her elbow looking down at Ignis' unseeing eyes, while he cupped her cheek and gently ran his thumb over her cheekbone. She would never admit it, but Ignis could feel how her face had warmed up at his compliment. No matter how many years they had been together, she still couldn't handle compliments well. But that didn't stop Ignis paying them to her. And he sincerely meant every one.

"What happened to Ravus in Altissia?" she asks quietly. Ignis stopped moving his thumb.

He had told her that Ravus was in his nightmare - and indeed in the final moments before he went blind - but reassured her that he was not the cause.

"We were seperated. I don't know what happened after that. Could it be possible that that's when he was executed?"

Of course Ignis was lying. But he didn't want anybody's memory of Ravus to be tainted by his transformation. The tortured white haired soldier had only wanted to save his little sister after all. No need to drag his reputation through the dirt about his infection. He and the other two had agreed to keep the final fight with Ravus to themselves. No matter how much it hurt Ignis to keep secrets from the woman he was planning to propose to once Noct brought the dawn back. If Ignis was honest with himself, it had been so long he was beginning to forget what Ravus and Noctis even sounded like.

"Poor guy. He wasn't really all that bad." Aranea sighs, lying back down so she was snuggled into Ignis' shoulder. He brought his arm up around her shoulders, holding her close to his side while he remained on his back. They both began sweating within seconds due Lestallum's foul heat, but neither cared.

"No," Ignis concurs, "No he wasn't."

They both lie there in the sweltering darkness, no sound outside save for the occasional daemonic scream in the background.

"How long's he going to be?" Aranea mumbles into Ignis' skin, her eyes growing heavy with sleep. Ignis knew she meant Noct. It had been six years already

"That is for the Draconian to decide, my love." he answers. Ignis turns his head to plant a kiss on Aranea's forehead. She's already sound asleep, Ignis can sense her heavy breathing pattern and hear her light snores. 

"Noct, wheresoever you may be, I hope you are well." Ignis mumbles out loud as he stares up at the ceiling with his broken eye. It hurt his heart more than he would ever admit, but Ignis regularly mentally beat himself up for slowly beginning to forget the roadtrip all those years ago. He was begining to forget what his King sounded like, what it felt like to battle together as a group of four with perfect synergy.

Tightening his grip on the Dragoon at his side, Ignis closed his eye just as a single tear escaped out of the corner of it and rolled down his cheek, then he let sleep overtake him once again.


End file.
